Predictive value of plasma brain natriuretic peptide for postoperative cardiac complications--a systemic review and meta-analysis.

Background: We aimed to undertake a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies addressing perioperative natriuretic peptide (NP) levels to predict postoperative major adverse cardiac events (MACE) after major surgery.

Methods: We searched MEDLINE and Embase with no language restrictions up to May 2013. The end points were major cardiac complications.

The characteristics and prognostic predictors of unplanned hospital admission within 72 hours after ED discharge.

Objectives: The aims of this study were (1) to identify the characteristics of patients who return to the emergency department (ED) within 72 hours and are admitted to the hospital and (2) to identify the characteristics and predictors of in-hospital mortality subgroup.

Methods: This study was conducted in a tertiary teaching hospital to identify characteristics of adult nontraumatic revisit-admission patients from January 1 to December 31, 2011. Demographic data, cause of revisit, and the underlying diseases as well as the in-hospital complications were reviewed.

Tuning cell cycle of insect cells for enhanced protein production.

The eukaryotic cell cycle consists of many checkpoints during which certain conditions must be met before passing to subsequent stages. These safeguards ensure cells' integrity and survival, but may also limit growth and protein synthesis in protein production processes. In this work, we employ metabolic engineering principles to "tune" the cell cycle to overcome checkpoint processes in order to facilitate faster cell growth, and independently, arrest the cell cycle in gap1 (G1) phase for greater protein productivity.

Biofabrication of antibodies and antigens via IgG-binding domain engineered with activatable pentatyrosine pro-tag.

We report the assembly of seven different antibodies (and two antigens) into functional supramolecular structures that are specifically designed to facilitate integration into devices using entirely biologically based bottom-up fabrication. This is enabled by the creation of an engineered IgG-binding domain (HG3T) with an N-terminal hexahistidine tag that facilitates purification and a C-terminal enzyme-activatable pentatyrosine "pro-tag" that facilitates covalent coupling to the pH stimuli-responsive polysaccharide, chitosan. Because we confer pH-stimuli responsiveness to the IgG-binding domain, it can be electrodeposited or otherwise assembled into many configurations.